1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to racks for appliances, and more particularly, to a sensing device in an oven rack.
2) Description of Prior Art
Typically, cooking appliances designed for household uses are provided with one or more racks for supporting food items to be cooked within an oven cavity. The oven cavity itself is generally provided with sidewall rails for supporting respective lateral sides of the rack, while permitting the rack to be vertically adjusted. That is, the rack can slide along a selected set of support rails for movement into and out of the oven cavity, with the rack also being removable for cleaning or for repositioning at a different height.
Oven racks are often of wire construction. More specifically, an outer wire frame and a support platform, which is constituted by a plurality of fore-to-aft and laterally spaced wires, define a typical oven rack. The wires are substantially evenly spaced across the entire rack for use in supporting food items to be cooked.
The racks and the sidewall rails all may be removable for ease of cleaning outside of the oven and to protect both the appearance and the glides of the rack structure during an oven self-cleaning (pyrolysis). Unfortunately, users tend to leave the structure in place. The presence of the rack structure in the oven during a cleaning cycle results in discoloration of the rack structure and degradation of the glide system.